Our Weekly Tea Time: The Details

This summer we started doing weekly tea time or, as we’ve started calling it, tea party.  It was a huge hit with the kids, I had a blast creating our parties, and it has become something we all look forward to each week.  Most weeks I share pictures of our tea parties in my Instagram/Facebook stories and most weeks I get questions in my DMs about our tea parties so I thought I’d put together a post with alllll the details.  So here you go!

What is tea time?

Tea time is a time we set aside once a week to slow down and enjoy each other’s company.  We eat a snack together that is a little more special than what we normally have, I use my china and some fun serving dishes so make a pretty table, and we do some sort of fine arts related activity (listen to classical music, read some poetry, do a drawing tutorial, etc.).

Some weeks I make an elaborate tea party with fun themes or more involved food, and other weeks I do something simple and basic.

Why did we start tea time?

One day it occurred to me that 1) I don’t make my kids homemade treats as often as I’d like to and 2) that I don’t use my china pretty much ever, so I decided that I was going to change both of those things.   I decided we’d start doing weekly tea parties with yummy treats on the fancy china.

At the time we also thought Michael was going to have to go back to work in the office full time and I thought this would be something fun for the kids and me to help soften the blow of Daddy not being at home all the time anymore.  Thankfully that changed and he only had to go back to the office part time, so now he gets to join us most weeks too which makes it even more special!

For years I’ve heard about homeschoolers doing “poetry tea time” where they drink tea and read poetry and do art and other “beautiful” things.  While I didn’t start our tea time with that in mind, I decided it would be fun to incorporate a little bit of that in too so now we have some of that as well.

But at its core, I started tea time as a way to add a little magic and whimsy into our lives.

Tea time details

Before I go any further with the details I want to address something first:  please know that 1) you don’t have to do tea time/tea party at all if it’s not your jam.  I love it, we love it, but don’t feel guilty if you don’t want to do it.  2) You can do tea time without making a ton of homemade goodies if that’s not your thing either.   I love it and it’s fun for me, but if it’s not for you then you can absolutely get store bought treats.

This post is not meant to make you feel bad or like you aren’t doing enough.  It’s not to make you feel like you need to add more to your plate.  This is just for people who think this is something that you’d like to do and would like a little help with the details getting started.

(I’m going to address how I have time for all this and other FAQs later in this post)

Our tea time menu

I follow a formula of sorts as I plan our menu each week:

• a sweet treat
• a savory treat
• a drink
• plus a few other random munchies

The sweet and savory treats are things that are a little more special than our usual daily snack.  Sometimes they’re favorite recipes and other times I pick brand new stuff I find online and want to try (this has been a great way to introduce my pickiest eater to lots of new things). The drink varies from week to week and can be any sort of drink – seasonal, something new to try, a favorite thing, etc. The other random munchies aren’t anything special, usually just some fruit, veggies, cheese, nuts, crackers, etc. that we already have in the house.

Because I enjoy cooking, the sweet and savory are typically homemade (but like I mentioned before, they don’t have to be!)

When I first started tea time I brainstormed a list of sweet treat ideas, a list of savory snack ideas, and a list of drink ideas.  I used those to get started and then as we got a few weeks in I started doing more themed things, finding new recipes online, etc.

Scroll down to the end of this post for examples of weeks we’ve done.

What we do during tea time

Like I mentioned above, our tea parties were really created just to slow down, spend time together, and enjoy yummy food.  So that’s the main focus, but I’ve also started using this time to incorporate what some homeschoolers refer to as the “beauty subjects”.

When we first started I just played some classical music in the background as we ate and we read some poetry from some books I checked out of the library.  Then after a few weeks I added in some drawing tutorials from Art for Kids Hub on YouTube.  So typically we eat and chat for a bit with classical music in the background, then I read some poetry while the kids finish eating, and then we turn on a drawing tutorial.

I’m sure this will evolve over time and we’ll do other things, but for now this is perfect.

(Over Christmas I plan to do some watercolor tutorials and maybe a dedicated Christmas carol study – I’ll update with details when that’s decided)

Scroll down to the end of this post for a list of fine arts resources

FAQs

Nearly every week when I post tea time pictures in my IG/FB stories I get the same questions so I’m going to try to answer those here.

How do you have time for this?

TBH I don’t love this question because often it’s not asked genuinely and instead is asked as a backhanded insult but for those who are truly curious about how this works in our routine I will give an actual answer.

The short answer: I have time for it because I make time for it because it’s important to me.

The longer answer: I plan ahead several weeks at a time (see the next FAQ for more details) so that I’m not using brain space each week.  I consider tea party a part of our school just like I do history and science and such, so on tea party day it takes a priority as one of the “subjects” we’re doing that day.  I make sure we end our school lessons early enough to give me time to prep our food.  We may not do our other loop subjects like history or science that day, but instead we’re getting art, music, and poetry.  Sometimes I’ll turn on our audiobook and the kids and I will listen while I fix the food, other times I call it done for the day and they run off to play while I prep.  If I’m making something more elaborate that can be made in advance I’ll do that the night before.

Part of why I started it in the summer was because I did have more time to devote to setting up a tea party.  Now that we’ve been doing it for several months, I’m a lot faster at the set up and prep because it’s become more routine. I also keep the table decorations pretty simple most weeks so that doesn’t take much time.

I dishwash almost everything (yes, even the china) and only hand wash the large serving dishes that can’t go in the dishwasher so clean up isn’t too bad after.

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: I just started tea party this past summer right before my youngest turned 4.  I would NOT have had the capacity to start this when he (my youngest) was younger.  We were in survival mode for several years and did the bare minimum of school to fulfill what we needed to fulfill.  I did not have the energy or brain space or creativity (or trust that a toddler wouldn’t destroy everything) to start something like tea parties during those years.  So if you’re in the thick of it with littles or a hard season, please don’t look at my tea parties and feel bad that you don’t/can’t/don’t want to do this.

How do you plan all this?

I try to plan ahead.  I keep a note on my phone and when I have some downtime I’ll sit down and brainstorm ideas.  I make notes about upcoming holidays, seasons, or topics we’re doing at CC so I can planned themed ones if I want.  If there is a link to a recipe I’ll link that in the note, even write down decorating ideas if I have those. I find drawing tutorials from YouTube and put the link to those in the note too.

I like to have several weeks planned at a time so that each week I’m not scrambling to make decisions.

What if we don’t like tea?

Guess what, we don’t either!  (at least, not yet)  We just use other things in our teapot instead!

Some drink ideas:

• Hot chocolate
• Chocolate milk
• Strawberry milk
• White milk
• Lemonade
• Strawberry lemonade
• Apple cider (cold / hot)
• Orange juice
• Punch
• Apple juice
• Sparking cider/juice
• Other juices (Target has a variety of juice combos that we’ve tried)

At some point I will also use tea time as a time to try some teas and perhaps at some point we’ll find some tea flavors that we enjoy but so far we’ve just done other non-tea beverages.

What ages can do tea time?

Any ages! When we started tea time my kids were 11, 9, 6, and almost 4. I was worried about how my almost 4 year old would do with the china cups but he did so well and has had very few spills. If you have younger ones you could modify their cup and plate so they’re less breakable/spillable.

Do your kids help?

Not yet. They would LOVE to help if I’d let them, but right now I really enjoy surprising them each week with the treats and themes I have planned so I do it all myself. At some point in the future I do intend to let them start helping. My plan is to pick one kid per week to help me plan and prep so we have some special mommy/kiddo time. And maybe even as they get older they’ll want to take turns doing the whole thing themselves. But right now it’s something that I like doing for them that is a fun, creative outlet for me.

What to do you use to set your table?

The only thing I have purchased for tea time is a tea pot, which I found at a local thrift store. I already had a full set of china from when we got married so I’ve been using that and whatever serving dishes I already had on hand. If you don’t own china you can 100% do tea party without it and just use regular dishes, or you can find lots of tea cups and saucers at thrift stores and do a fun, mismatched set of dishes.

Now that I’ve discovered how much fun I have putting these together, I’d like to get some more linens and serving pieces to add to my collection but so far I’ve just used what I already had. Home decor is 100% not my strong suit and I have no idea how to make a “pretty” table (you’ll see in my pictures below that my table set up is pretty plain) but that’s something I’d love to get better at and this is a fun way to practice.

Just remember: it doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy or beautiful! The fun is in the novelty and whimsy and togetherness, not in perfection!

Fine arts resources

Until we started tea time this summer, fine arts wasn’t something I’d really done much of in our homeschool.  I’ve always felt that I was more of a math/science/history person and not an art/music/poetry person so other than the fine arts units that my kids do through Classical Conversations, we didn’t really do much at home.

But when we started tea parties it seemed like they naturally went hand in hand with some of these fine arts and so I’ve been working on incorporating them more.  This is all new to me so I thought I’d share some beginner resources for other people like me who may be new to doing this too.

(I’ll try to remember to keep updating this as we find/try other things too)

Poetry resources

We had never done anything with poetry before we started tea time, so I didn’t have a clue where to start!  After some research here’s what we started with:

• Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry – This was a fun book that not only had poetry but also talked about why the author wrote that poem, what inspired him, etc.  My kids laughed and laughed and it was a great introduction to poetry (This could also be great for a poetry study and you could have your kids do assignments based on each chapter)
• Be Glad your Nose is on your Face – a collection of poems by Jack Prelutsky (the same man who wrote Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry).  His poetry is funny and easy to understand.  It’s similar to Shel Silverstein in that it’s very kid-friendly, but I prefer it to Shel Silverstein (it’s not quite as crass, imo).
• Sing a Song of Seasons – This is a beautiful book of poetry that has a poem for every day of the year, typically about nature.  These poems are more of your “classic”/traditional poetry.

I would typically read one chapter from Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry, then a couple of his poems from Be Glad your Nose is on your Face, and then a couple from Sing a Song of Seasons.  This gave us a good mix of funny poems, classic poems, and learning about poetry.

Music resources

When we first started I just searched for classical music playlists on YouTube music, picked a random one, and played it over our speakers.  Sometimes I’ll search for specific themes like the Harry Potter score when we did a HP themed tea party or patriotic music for our 4th of July party.

In the spring we do an orchestra unit at CC and will learn about various composers – I plan to play music from those composers during our tea parties those weeks.

So far we’ve just listened to music in the background and haven’t really “studied” anything but I would like to add that in at some point!

• SQUILT – if you want more structured music study, SQUILT is a great option!  I have used some of their materials for my class at CC and plan to use some of the Christmas music studies this year during our Christmas school.

Art resources

Drawing is something else we added in and I’ve been surprised at how much we enjoy it!

• Art for Kids Hub – We started with drawing tutorials using Art for Kids Hub on YouTube.  They have a gazillion videos and a ton of variety so I’ve been easily able to find a video each week that fits the “theme” of our week or goes along with the current season.  They are pretty quick and simple for even young kids to follow but turn out so cute! We have just been watching free the YouTube videos but they also have a website where you can subscribe if you want to avoid using YouTube, dealing with ads, etc.
• Brighter Day Press Christmas watercolors – I’m thinking about trying some watercolor lessons around Christmas because I found this online class and think it looks great!

Other resources

• Tea Time Together – if you want done-for-you themed lesson plans, check out Tea Time Together!  They have some done by months and others by history time period (a perfect companion for Classical Conversations families!).  These incorporate art, recipes, music, book lists, and more.

Tea time ideas by week

Here’s my list of tea time plans by week for the weeks we’ve done so far.  Use these as inspiration for your own tea parties!

(If I have a link, I’ll link it, otherwise it’s likely a recipe I came up with out of my head or one I have as a hard copy)

After the holidays I was tired so my January tea parties were pretty boring – several weeks with no major themes, nothing super fun in the way of the snacks, mostly hot chocolate every week for our drink. And that’s ok! We all enjoyed it even though they were a bit more simple.

I skipped a few weeks – the food itself was nothing new or special and I didn’t take pictures. Some of the art we did during this time was a snowboarder (to go along with the Winter Olympics) and a gnome.

…I’ll keep updating this post as the weeks go on so save it and come back for more ideas!